Star Gate

Chapter 79: Killing A Scarlet Shadow (I)

“Chief is getting out!” Liu Yan quickly realized. The fatty nursed too many concerns to readily mount an offensive, but he at least could ensure that Liu Long would not die within the city.

“The Inspectorate?” Li Hao realized with surprise. The agency had gotten involved? This really did run outside his expectations.

“Mmhmm, that should be them!” Liu Yan muttered as they ran. “The fatty at the Inspectorate is our superior. You should be careful of him—he’s not a good guy. Don’t get so taken in that you count the money for him as he sells you to the highest bidder!”

Li Hao had met Mu Sen before. The inspector general had come by a few days after the rookies came on board. Mu Sen had offered a few compliments and was very amiable. He possessed a good reputation within the Inspectorate.

Who would’ve thought that the inspector general, normally quiet as a mouse, would dare interfere with tonight’s affairs?

“Is the inspector general a martial master? Or supernatural?”

“Martial master!” Liu Yan responded swiftly. “The supernaturals are almost all with the Night Watchers, only mundanes remain with us. Most of the Inspectorate are martial masters, but there’s a portion that’s purely mundane.”

Li Hao asked no further as it wasn’t the time for questions. The three continued to race forward, crossing a patch of wilderness before long. A large warehouse loomed one thousand meters after that, and the faint outline of a mountain could be seen in the distance.

Mt. Heavenly King!

This was where Liu Long had chosen and while Li Hao didn’t understand why this spot was significant, there was nothing he could do other than to trust the captain. They were almost there!

Liu Yan suddenly crouched in the grass, as did Chen Jian. The two yanked Li Hao down next to them.

There was no movement in the surroundings! The young man found nothing after a quick scan. However, he trusted Liu Yan’s judgment. Silently crouching amid grass that was as tall as a person, the heavy downpour masked the sounds of the trio crunching through the terrain.

A gunshot rang through the night thirty seconds later! The rain drowned it out, but a muffled crack could still be identified through the deluge.

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Liu Yan’s only reaction was to crouch even lower. Meanwhile, Chen Jian made a gesture at Li Hao. The young man understood it—tall guy… Wu Chao!

Wu Chao and Yun Yao were here! They’d gone to support the captain; Li Hao had been worried over their continued absence. It looked like they were alive, but tracked by the enemy.

“Arr arr arr!” A little black dog’s continued growling barely reached Li Hao’s ears.

Panther!

……

Wu Chao’s face was white and he heaved for breath. He couldn’t hold Yun Yao or drag along Panther anymore. The dog still had some energy and growled without stop, as if trying to deter something. Yun Yao had tossed away her goggles a long time ago. She couldn’t see the scarlet shadow, but she knew where it was! Wherever the dog barked was where it was!

She still had her medicine kit and could tell that Wu Chao was injured. There was a supernatural following them!

Most were distracted by the captain; there had been two following them at first. One left due to certain events in the city, leaving one still hunting them down.

“Go to the meeting point…” Crimson brilliance colored the skinny man’s face. Rainwater trickling down his head carried hints of red with it. It was blood!

Wu Chao was injured, and heavily at that. The supernatural following them nearly rivaled him in speed. Although the gap between the two parties didn’t close, the Demon Hunters were attacked by scarlet shadows a few times, even with Panther pointing the way.

Being weaker than Liu Long, Wu Chao lacked the ability to agitate his blood with internal force to force the shadow out. His organs had suffered burn damage and his head seemed to have been pierced clean through. Raindrops took away tendrils of blood with them.

Yun Yao swiftly opened her kit instead of saying anything and took out a tiny crystal ball. She shoved it in his mouth, whereupon Wu Chao swallowed without complaint. His face flushed ever more brightly and his blood began to froth. However, his skin split open as well and he lost blood at a faster rate.

The team doctor quickly dressed his wounds; a faint sheen of energy from her hand barely managed to close them.

“Go, head to the meeting point first,” she said tiredly. “You know what the consequences are!”

Consequences?

The consequences of taking that crystal ball!

Wu Chao laughed with a slightly bleak note. Of course he knew what the consequences were—the crystal ball was both poison and medicine. It stirred up the potential, but one was crippled after a period of time.

Who could care about that now?

The skinny man recovered to his peak; both strength and speed returned to him. He grabbed Yun Yao with one hand and Panther with the other, sprinting for the warehouse in the distance.

He traveled at full speed again.

A figure outlined in shifting blue light flashed by moments later. The supernatural in a ghostly mask was also here. He’d somehow failed to catch a Slayer after all this time! Although the guy was a little bit faster, it was surprising that he’d managed to run for so long.

“That dog…” The supernatural hadn’t cared about the dog before, but Blue Ghostface was now puzzled. The dog seemed a bit special, like it could see the shadows that normal people couldn’t.

The scarlet shadow had drawn close multiple times, but only harmed Wu Chao once. The rest of the attempts were evaded. Logically speaking, a Slayer should not be able to evade the scarlet shadow. Even Liu Long was only able to meet it head-on!

But that dog? Interesting…

“A dog on its way to becoming a dog spirit? Or is it that black dogs share special characteristics?” Blue Ghostface didn’t understand it. The scarlet shadows were also special and the Ghostfaces didn’t understand them either. Although he commanded one shadow, that didn’t mean he understood everything.

A faint ripple of mysterious power undulated over him, manifesting the scarlet shadow to chase their quarry again.

……

Within the wilderness.

Liu Yan didn’t make a sound. She didn’t show herself even when Wu Chao and Yun Yao darted past them. The woman seemed more confident than before.

Seeing that she was concealing even the sounds of her breathing, Li Hao knew that the woman wanted to ambush the pursuer. It had to be supernatural because Li Hao could see all too clearly through the rainy night!

A beam of lunar splendor sparkled in the distance—mysterious power, Darkmoon!

The others didn’t know that he could see mysterious power.

“A supernatural!”

It wasn’t martial masters this time, just one Darkmoon on par with a Sunderer. No, make that much more thorny to handle than a Sunderer. It was almost impossible for Liu Yan to pull off an ambush as supernaturals were so much more difficult than Sunderers!

Plainly, her earlier success had emboldened her. She turned back to give Li Hao a look, one that the young man understood!

He stiffened. No way, sis! She was obviously overestimating him as she wanted him to put on the same show as before. Maybe they could pull the wool over the pursuer’s eyes!

But the situation was different this time, because Li Hao saw a smear of red by the ball of light! A scarlet shadow! It was their first time encountering one tonight and the source of his many nightmares. No one else could see it and not even Liu Long could handle it!

Li Hao’s teacher had said that it was a mental existence that only Dominators could exterminate. The young man subconsciously stroked his jade sword. Perhaps only Stellaris could take on the shadow. But one had to keep in mind that the shadow came with a Darkmoon. Liu Yan and Chen Jian were no match for the supernatural.

When he saw that the woman was poised to run out, Li Hao held onto her with a death grip! Don’t move!

These supernaturals had an extra pair of eyes when they commanded a shadow; it was a pair that saw in 360 degrees. Scarlet shadows could fly, were formless and intangible, and could hover in the air to observe in all directions.

The supernaturals that died in the city had either directed their shadows to follow Liu Long or sent them too far away. They died due to overlooking the mundanes around them. Otherwise, it was very difficult for them to perish when a shadow was another set of eyes.

Li Hao didn’t dare let Liu Yan rush out—he already saw the shadow in the air! This would be a rush to her death, not an ambush! The shadow would discover her as soon as she moved!

Liu Yan tilted her head at Li Hao; the young man pointed at the sky. She started, then realized something with shock.

What does he mean? Is he saying that the formless mental entity is nearby? But… those things are hard to see and there should only be one of them. It should be following Liu Long in the city right now, what’s it doing here?

Being a Slayer, she couldn’t feel the other’s presence. It was only now that insurmountable pressure dawned on her. There was more than one of these things!

If Li Hao hadn’t stopped her, the enemy would’ve discovered her long before she drew near. She’d be dead without a doubt!

In the meantime, Li Hao was furiously thinking of solutions. A supernatural with a scarlet shadow was too difficult to handle. Supernaturals were incredibly mighty to begin with. When armed with a scarlet shadow, they were impossible to ambush and the shadow was also extremely destructive. It made it easier for the supernaturals to do their job.

Liu Long’s unexpected move of activating hot weapons on a large scale within the city was why he’d been able to swiftly kill three. He would have no hope otherwise in a direct standoff.

Li Hao looked toward the source of light again. As hidden as supernaturals may be, they were light bulbs to him. He didn’t worry about an ambush, just the shadow. Whether one traveled through the earth or elsewhere, he would discover them so long as he could see mysterious power.

A scarlet shadow swiftly floated past them while Li Hao and Liu Yan were both lost in thought. The young man stayed motionless, terrifyingly quiet in the grass, permitting the ice-cold rain to completely drench him.